Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a turbomachine blade and related production method.
More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a method of producing a rotor or stator blade for a compressor or front fan of an aircraft turbine engine, to which use the following description refers purely by way of example.
Description of the Related Art
As is known, rotor and stator blades of aircraft turbine engine compressors substantially comprise a coupling root designed to fit and lock rigidly to the compressor center hub or blade mounting disk; and an airfoil-shaped oblong member, which extends from the coupling root, so as to cantilever radially outwards of the hub or blade mounting disk when the coupling root is fixed inside the center hub or blade mounting disk.
Stator blades also have an upper coupling head, which is located at the top end of the airfoil-shaped oblong member, i.e. at the opposite end to the coupling root, and is designed to fit and lock rigidly to the outer blade mounting ring of the compressor.
Having to withstand fairly severe mechanical stress and heat, the lower coupling root, the airfoil-shaped oblong member, and the upper coupling head (if there is one) are usually formed in one piece from a single block of high-strength metal, which is variously machined to shape the blade as required.
Milling a blade from a single block of metal, however, is an extremely painstaking, time-consuming job requiring special numeric-control milling machines capable of machining large workpieces to a high degree of precision. As a result, blades of this sort are extremely expensive to produce.